1. SotR: I'm kind of tired due to sleep dep. Kind of like that pushcart in Monty Python and the Holy Grail with the guy yelling "Bring Out Your Dead!" However, the lack of sleep has been in a very good cause. OMG what a cause . . . I'm not going to /disclose more just yet, except for the fact that I'm in a very good place. SGLs continue to be Green. YAY ME.
2. Baycon has gone from "definite maybe" to "I'm going. Period." Yes, this is related to item 1.
3. Effective immediately: Chuck Norris is no joke. I'm gonna utterly PWN the next WoW loudmouth who starts with the CN jokes.
4. Tech Republic needs to STFU with the FUD.
5. New talking iPod. Nice.
Showing posts with label sf/f. Show all posts
Showing posts with label sf/f. Show all posts
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
Wednesday, January 14, 2009
Monday, January 12, 2009
The Van-Breaking-Down-Seven-Phone-Agents-two-tow-trucks-Two-oops-THREE-Fuel-Pumps-Fail-outta-teh-box-six-hundred-bux-but-the-shop-has-free-wifi Blues
Good Points: free wifi, accessible from here. I can forgive a lot for free wifi.
Bad Points: TV in waiting room tuned to Fox News. That's what iTunes and WoW were made for.
Foxaganda Trails:
"Obama's Gonna Close Gitmo and release the terrists, we're all gonna die!!!"
Where the fsck does FNC get all those idiots?
Calling Ann Coulter a "cvnt" is an insult to vaginas.
Bill O'Reilly wears a tie to keep his foreskin from rolling up his neck. Fsck BillO and the phone sex falafel sandwich he rode in on.
Calling Sean Hannity a "retard" insults the mentally ill.
Meat Loaf on Hannity; time to delete Bat Out Of Hell from the HD
This siege of semi-forced TV reminded me of why I don't own a set. I turned up the music, risking hearing loss to keep the IQ points from leaking out my ears.
THREE fuel pumps out of the box . . . but now they know WHY: the shop's been ordering the WRONG ONES!!
During my vehicle-less stretch this week, I downloaded more ebooks for my reading pleasure. Or so I hoped. I'm a very big fan of Eric Flint's 1632 series. If you were to design in a lab a sf series to appeal strictly to me, the premise of "Have a cosmic accident drop a small West Virginia town into Thurungia at the height of the Thirty Years' War. Watch hilarity ensue." is a at the top of the list. The original 1632 is a classic on the same plane as H. Beam Piper's Lord Kalvan of Otherwhen (premise: "Pennsylvania State Trooper stumbles upon a transport device of the Time Patrol, winds up in a parallel universe where North America was originally settled by Aryan migration across the Pacific Ocean ("Aryan Transpacific"), with early 1600s tech and a church that deems gunpowder(!) a religious sacrament . . ."). Another good comparison volume of course is S.M. Stirling's Dies the Fire (Premise: "Alien Space Bats An Unknown Force shut down all electronic and high explosive / high combustion technologies, reducing the world to pre-1100 tech; SCAdians and Pagans war over the ruins . . . Oh, and Nantucket is missing."
Anyway, 1632 spawned numerous sequalae: 1633 (co-written with David Weber), 1634: The Baltic War (also co-written with DW), numerous "Grantville Gazette" volumes of vignettes and short stoies, and at least three other "163x" volumes. The first two volumes in this list are both awesome. Weber and Flint collaborated earlier on an awesome book set in Weber's Honorverse, Crown of Slaves, so I knew the first two sequals would rock. They did.
This brings us to 1634: The Bravarian Crisis. The book is not exactly a contunuation of 1634:TBW, it focuses on our favorite medieval / early modern royal dynasty: those lovable Hapsburgs! The co-author knows her 17th-century Germany. I learned more about the Hapsburgs in reading this book than I ever knew before I picked it up. Yes, the plot was okay . . . but it was BORING as all hell. Okay, 1634: TBC was really about "soft power." Building things like modern schools, while avoiding enemies like the Inquisition, the Society of Jesus and the French. Not to mention what happens when the Holy Roman Emperor (talk about 'three lies for the price of one') loses the will to live. Too much touchy-feely, not enough "Let's show them the meaning of Rate of Fire!"
Perhaps that's coming in future books . . . but this one struggled to hold my interest. At least it was better than Orson Scott Card's magnum opiate, Empire. I may give 1635: The Cannon Law a chance. Or not. Two months till Storm from the Shadows . . . hopefully eight - ten till Torch of Freedom (aka Crown of Slaves II) and Mission of Honor next year.
Once I get the car back, methinks I will see Gran Torino. You simply cannot go wrong with Clint Eastwood, marauding gangbangers and a M1 Garand. Also Defiance.
----------------
Listening to: R.E.M. - Imitation of Life (Live)
via FoxyTunes
Bad Points: TV in waiting room tuned to Fox News. That's what iTunes and WoW were made for.
Foxaganda Trails:
"Obama's Gonna Close Gitmo and release the terrists, we're all gonna die!!!"
Where the fsck does FNC get all those idiots?
Calling Ann Coulter a "cvnt" is an insult to vaginas.
Bill O'Reilly wears a tie to keep his foreskin from rolling up his neck. Fsck BillO and the phone sex falafel sandwich he rode in on.
Calling Sean Hannity a "retard" insults the mentally ill.
Meat Loaf on Hannity; time to delete Bat Out Of Hell from the HD
This siege of semi-forced TV reminded me of why I don't own a set. I turned up the music, risking hearing loss to keep the IQ points from leaking out my ears.
THREE fuel pumps out of the box . . . but now they know WHY: the shop's been ordering the WRONG ONES!!
During my vehicle-less stretch this week, I downloaded more ebooks for my reading pleasure. Or so I hoped. I'm a very big fan of Eric Flint's 1632 series. If you were to design in a lab a sf series to appeal strictly to me, the premise of "Have a cosmic accident drop a small West Virginia town into Thurungia at the height of the Thirty Years' War. Watch hilarity ensue." is a at the top of the list. The original 1632 is a classic on the same plane as H. Beam Piper's Lord Kalvan of Otherwhen (premise: "Pennsylvania State Trooper stumbles upon a transport device of the Time Patrol, winds up in a parallel universe where North America was originally settled by Aryan migration across the Pacific Ocean ("Aryan Transpacific"), with early 1600s tech and a church that deems gunpowder(!) a religious sacrament . . ."). Another good comparison volume of course is S.M. Stirling's Dies the Fire (Premise: "
Anyway, 1632 spawned numerous sequalae: 1633 (co-written with David Weber), 1634: The Baltic War (also co-written with DW), numerous "Grantville Gazette" volumes of vignettes and short stoies, and at least three other "163x" volumes. The first two volumes in this list are both awesome. Weber and Flint collaborated earlier on an awesome book set in Weber's Honorverse, Crown of Slaves, so I knew the first two sequals would rock. They did.
This brings us to 1634: The Bravarian Crisis. The book is not exactly a contunuation of 1634:TBW, it focuses on our favorite medieval / early modern royal dynasty: those lovable Hapsburgs! The co-author knows her 17th-century Germany. I learned more about the Hapsburgs in reading this book than I ever knew before I picked it up. Yes, the plot was okay . . . but it was BORING as all hell. Okay, 1634: TBC was really about "soft power." Building things like modern schools, while avoiding enemies like the Inquisition, the Society of Jesus and the French. Not to mention what happens when the Holy Roman Emperor (talk about 'three lies for the price of one') loses the will to live. Too much touchy-feely, not enough "Let's show them the meaning of Rate of Fire!"
Perhaps that's coming in future books . . . but this one struggled to hold my interest. At least it was better than Orson Scott Card's magnum opiate, Empire. I may give 1635: The Cannon Law a chance. Or not. Two months till Storm from the Shadows . . . hopefully eight - ten till Torch of Freedom (aka Crown of Slaves II) and Mission of Honor next year.
Once I get the car back, methinks I will see Gran Torino. You simply cannot go wrong with Clint Eastwood, marauding gangbangers and a M1 Garand. Also Defiance.
----------------
Listening to: R.E.M. - Imitation of Life (Live)
via FoxyTunes
Friday, November 28, 2008
Black Friday Special...
Darth Vader Toaster!
This is simply begging to be mocked . . .
Random Thoughts (and dry, un-buttered humor) follow:
"Always two slices, there are . . . "
The Sith are TOAST!
The Dark Side™: Part of this nutritious breakfast!
Eggs Aankin: Like Eggs Benedict, except on Darth Toasted muffins
"What is thy bidding, my Master?"
"Two slices, not burned."
----------------
Now playing (what else?): John Williams - The Imperial March
via FoxyTunes
This is simply begging to be mocked . . .
Random Thoughts (and dry, un-buttered humor) follow:
"Always two slices, there are . . . "
The Sith are TOAST!
The Dark Side™: Part of this nutritious breakfast!
Eggs Aankin: Like Eggs Benedict, except on Darth Toasted muffins
"What is thy bidding, my Master?"
"Two slices, not burned."
----------------
Now playing (what else?): John Williams - The Imperial March
via FoxyTunes
Saturday, October 11, 2008
Money and Music
There is lots and lots of scary financial and business news out there. I've been reading about folks who have lost a decade or more of market value gains from their 401ks, folks my age who looked upon accounts they established in their early working lives that have started to implode.
I started the race rather late, and right at the time when, to paraphrase Ambassador Kosh from Babylon 5: "The avalanche has already started; it is too late for the pebbles to vote."
I've done everything I can do to retrench; all I can hope to do is to ride out the storm.
On a related note: with all those bank failures out there, I am telling anyone that will listen that moving one's funds to a good credit union might be a good idea. The bigger banks like BofA, Welles Fargo andWaaahMooo are, IMHO, about as safe as an unshielded kilogram of Cobalt 60 in your codpiece.
On an unrelated note that has little or nothing to do with doomsday scenarios or radioisotopes in an uncomfortable proximity to your family jewels: Seanan McGuire is coming out with a new CD of filk music goodness, Red Roses and Dead Things. Seanan is an awesome songwriter, a poet, comic strip artist and author. You owe it to yourself and to future generations (those not roasted by that hot lump of Co-60 in your shorts) to hie yourself over to her website and preorder a copy.
----------------
Now playing: Seanan McGuire - Vampire Slayer Blues
via FoxyTunes
I started the race rather late, and right at the time when, to paraphrase Ambassador Kosh from Babylon 5: "The avalanche has already started; it is too late for the pebbles to vote."
I've done everything I can do to retrench; all I can hope to do is to ride out the storm.
On a related note: with all those bank failures out there, I am telling anyone that will listen that moving one's funds to a good credit union might be a good idea. The bigger banks like BofA, Welles Fargo and
On an unrelated note that has little or nothing to do with doomsday scenarios or radioisotopes in an uncomfortable proximity to your family jewels: Seanan McGuire is coming out with a new CD of filk music goodness, Red Roses and Dead Things. Seanan is an awesome songwriter, a poet, comic strip artist and author. You owe it to yourself and to future generations (those not roasted by that hot lump of Co-60 in your shorts) to hie yourself over to her website and preorder a copy.
----------------
Now playing: Seanan McGuire - Vampire Slayer Blues
via FoxyTunes
Tuesday, May 20, 2008
Friday, April 25, 2008
The bizare world of my brain, 1.0
Time for another weird dream.
It was aliens again. This week it's Protoss from StarCraft. "They've come to Earth to enslave us all and steal our women and molest our sheep!" The usual. On my way to work one fine day I get kidnapped off the street by a van full of Men in Black, get put into a high-tech medical Iron Maiden and emerge buffed up like a Warhammer 40k Space Marine. All I need us the cigar to look like Duke Nukem.
Ok, power armor and heavy bolter in hand, I go hunting aliens. The alien's vessel is grounded near a pasture. They're stealing sheep! I take cover behind a tree and open fire. Nice little firefight; they hit the tree but I hit them. An alien heavy weapons team blows my tree to splinters with a plasma gun and I fly into a creek from the explosion. As I get up, one of the aliens rips off my power armor helm and extends a probe / straw to suck out my brains. I feed it a grenade; the scene looks like one from Ahrnold's Commando. The one where the terrorist commander's head explodes.
The sheep seem grateful, though.
Alarm clock
It was aliens again. This week it's Protoss from StarCraft. "They've come to Earth to enslave us all and steal our women and molest our sheep!" The usual. On my way to work one fine day I get kidnapped off the street by a van full of Men in Black, get put into a high-tech medical Iron Maiden and emerge buffed up like a Warhammer 40k Space Marine. All I need us the cigar to look like Duke Nukem.
Ok, power armor and heavy bolter in hand, I go hunting aliens. The alien's vessel is grounded near a pasture. They're stealing sheep! I take cover behind a tree and open fire. Nice little firefight; they hit the tree but I hit them. An alien heavy weapons team blows my tree to splinters with a plasma gun and I fly into a creek from the explosion. As I get up, one of the aliens rips off my power armor helm and extends a probe / straw to suck out my brains. I feed it a grenade; the scene looks like one from Ahrnold's Commando. The one where the terrorist commander's head explodes.
The sheep seem grateful, though.
Alarm clock
Tuesday, March 18, 2008
Ad Astra, Arthur C. Clarke
Yet another of the heroes of my youth passes on . . .
----------------
Listening to: Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra - Also sprach Zarathustra (Thus Spoke Zoroaster), tone poem for orchestra, Op. 30 [Main Title]
via FoxyTunes
----------------
Listening to: Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra - Also sprach Zarathustra (Thus Spoke Zoroaster), tone poem for orchestra, Op. 30 [Main Title]
via FoxyTunes
Friday, March 7, 2008
Random Thoughts on McBush
"Y'know, back in the '70s, Joe Haldeman wrote a brilliant military sf novel The Forever War. The book is supposed to be fiction, not a roadmap for an Iraq policy!"
Hillary Clinton: You just lost my support. PERIOD.
I simply cannot believe what HRC said the other day with respect to her candidacy and that of presumptive Republican nominee John McCain.
This is mind-boggling that HRC would rather praise her all-but-certain opponent while the primary process is still underway than remeber who'se fscking side she is on!
With "friends" like her, who needs enemies?
I'm also incensed that Ms. Clinton has been playing the "fear card" -- "Vote for me or the terrorists will garotte us all in our beds!" How sick and tired am I of the politics of fear? The last seven years have been a living experiment in the Tarkin Doctrine; every time I hear a politician laboring to scare me with some news that Those Dark People Are Gonna Kills Us All!!! I just set that voice to my ever-growing "/ignore list."
The President's job is not to protect me from every and all peril in the world. The job is to "Support, protect and defend the Constitution of the United Stares against all enemies, foreign and domestic, and to bear true faith and allegiance to same." I do not expect the President to ensure my personal safety or that of the "nation," if it means giving up the essence of Americanism to obtain that safety. I expect the President and Congress to see to it that the US Armed Forces are as ready as they can be for credible threats to the national security.
I am FAR more afraid of what a McBush follow-on to Shrub will do to the tattered remnants of the Constitution and Bill o' Rights than I am of screaming hordes of jihadi conjured on demand by the scaremongers to frighten me into surrendering even more of my freedom!
Gary Hart, onetime Senator and Presidential candidate, has a few words for Hillary (via Huffpo). Is her lust for power so great that she'll cripple her own party? What use is getting the nomination if she gets creamed by John W. McBush in the fall?
This is mind-boggling that HRC would rather praise her all-but-certain opponent while the primary process is still underway than remeber who'se fscking side she is on!
With "friends" like her, who needs enemies?
I'm also incensed that Ms. Clinton has been playing the "fear card" -- "Vote for me or the terrorists will garotte us all in our beds!" How sick and tired am I of the politics of fear? The last seven years have been a living experiment in the Tarkin Doctrine; every time I hear a politician laboring to scare me with some news that Those Dark People Are Gonna Kills Us All!!! I just set that voice to my ever-growing "/ignore list."
The President's job is not to protect me from every and all peril in the world. The job is to "Support, protect and defend the Constitution of the United Stares against all enemies, foreign and domestic, and to bear true faith and allegiance to same." I do not expect the President to ensure my personal safety or that of the "nation," if it means giving up the essence of Americanism to obtain that safety. I expect the President and Congress to see to it that the US Armed Forces are as ready as they can be for credible threats to the national security.
I am FAR more afraid of what a McBush follow-on to Shrub will do to the tattered remnants of the Constitution and Bill o' Rights than I am of screaming hordes of jihadi conjured on demand by the scaremongers to frighten me into surrendering even more of my freedom!
Gary Hart, onetime Senator and Presidential candidate, has a few words for Hillary (via Huffpo). Is her lust for power so great that she'll cripple her own party? What use is getting the nomination if she gets creamed by John W. McBush in the fall?
Sunday, January 13, 2008
There and Back Again . . .
There's a good reason for the gap in my posting: I was in the hosptial for swelling and infected wounds in my legs. While I had my MB with me, I had no way to connect it to the Internet --I guess we're still a few years from what EarthLink founder Sky Dayton called "packetspace."
Ten days of almost no Internet (I had the browser on my cellphone, and that's it), coffee or TeeVee did not quite leave me a gibbering idiot. I was a near-run thing, though.
The most noteworthy aspect of this stay was that they (Kaiser) transferred me to a Kaiser-run skilled nursing facility (KPPACC) in San Leandro, about 100 miles from my current digs in South Sacramento.
I was not amused.
Highlight of my hospital visit: I successfully suppressed the urge to throttle by roommate at KPPACC. Idjit would have the remote for the one TV set the room had and play the most mind-destroying teevee other than political campaign ads or Fox News Channel: soap opeas and sports. Not only that, he'd read the damned paper with the fscking teevee on!
Whotta asshat. I wanted to stuff that remote down his throat, I was so pissed. I chose instead to employ my iPod -- stuffed with tunage from Leslie Fish, The Elders, Seanan McGuire and Flogging Molly -- and headphones to block out the sound; fortunately I had Civilization 3 loaded on the MB, a perfect non-Internet game for whiling away large blocks of time.
I also had The Sims 2 on my phone, another very good game. I'd never had the chance to play the game much until this trip to the hospital, and I got my money's worth from it during the ambulance ride to San Leandro.
M&D also brought me some spare underwear and Guinness pajama bottoms before I was shipped off to KPPACC. I wore the PJs for most of my stay at KPPACC. The tangerines helped stave off the hungries from the notoriously small (and utterly flavor-free) portions of Hospital Food® and the sugarless Jelly Bellies and Gummi Bears were treats I savored.
I managed to read William Gibson's Idoru as well -- I wouldn't say it was better than Neuromancer but it was better than Count Zero or Virtual Light.
At Kaiser South I encountered some utterly awesome nurses and a wonderful doc.
My daughter, bless her, came to pick me up and bring me home. Our first stop on the way home: Starbucks.
----------------
Listening to: Sun Green & The Imitators with Neil Young & Crazy Horse & The Greendale Chamber of Commerce - Be the Rain
via FoxyTunes
Ten days of almost no Internet (I had the browser on my cellphone, and that's it), coffee or TeeVee did not quite leave me a gibbering idiot. I was a near-run thing, though.
The most noteworthy aspect of this stay was that they (Kaiser) transferred me to a Kaiser-run skilled nursing facility (KPPACC) in San Leandro, about 100 miles from my current digs in South Sacramento.
I was not amused.
Highlight of my hospital visit: I successfully suppressed the urge to throttle by roommate at KPPACC. Idjit would have the remote for the one TV set the room had and play the most mind-destroying teevee other than political campaign ads or Fox News Channel: soap opeas and sports. Not only that, he'd read the damned paper with the fscking teevee on!
Whotta asshat. I wanted to stuff that remote down his throat, I was so pissed. I chose instead to employ my iPod -- stuffed with tunage from Leslie Fish, The Elders, Seanan McGuire and Flogging Molly -- and headphones to block out the sound; fortunately I had Civilization 3 loaded on the MB, a perfect non-Internet game for whiling away large blocks of time.
I also had The Sims 2 on my phone, another very good game. I'd never had the chance to play the game much until this trip to the hospital, and I got my money's worth from it during the ambulance ride to San Leandro.
M&D also brought me some spare underwear and Guinness pajama bottoms before I was shipped off to KPPACC. I wore the PJs for most of my stay at KPPACC. The tangerines helped stave off the hungries from the notoriously small (and utterly flavor-free) portions of Hospital Food® and the sugarless Jelly Bellies and Gummi Bears were treats I savored.
I managed to read William Gibson's Idoru as well -- I wouldn't say it was better than Neuromancer but it was better than Count Zero or Virtual Light.
At Kaiser South I encountered some utterly awesome nurses and a wonderful doc.
My daughter, bless her, came to pick me up and bring me home. Our first stop on the way home: Starbucks.
----------------
Listening to: Sun Green & The Imitators with Neil Young & Crazy Horse & The Greendale Chamber of Commerce - Be the Rain
via FoxyTunes
Monday, December 10, 2007
Ever look for something for a long time . . .
----------------
Listening to: Emerald Rose - Four Jacks
via FoxyTunes . . . and suddenly realize that you had it all along?
Case in point: the "Listening to . . " in this post.
A bit of background: I am utterly addicted to David Weber's Honor Harrington novel series. The Honorverse has been described as "space opera as if CS Forrester had written it." It's got exploding spaceships, Byzantine politics, Tech That Makes Sense, Sound Tactics (too much sf/f military fiction does not, sadly), historical allusions, action, adventure, telepathic cats with prehensile tails and opposable thumbs and characters to both admire and revile.
Anyway, back in 2000 or so, Baen Books, publisher of the series, put the whole series onto CD-ROM and distributed a copy of the disc with each hardcover of War of Honor. Anyway, I got that book and the disc, and gleefully synced the entire series' pdb files to three PDAs since then.
Also on the disc was the three Echo's Children filksongs set in the Honorverse. And until yesterday, I did not know it. I've been all over the web looking for "No Quarter!" -- I saw the lyrics on some random filk site last year, and as soon as I realize it was a Honorverse song, I had to have it!
Now I do . . . and it was worth the wait! I just hope the upcoming Honorverse books (three next year, pray to Sharon)
Many SF series get worse for wear as time goes on; this one gets better. I also recommend the books that are not part of the main sequence of the series, like Crown of Slaves and (most especially) The Shadow of Saganami. Also, unlike many series, reading them in publication order is best. My favorite of the whole series? The Shadow of Saganami, without a doubt. Followed closely by Honor Among Enemies, In Enemy Hands, and Echoes of Honor (which is something of a trilogy in terms of the ongoing story).
The song concerns what could well have been a scene in Echoes . . . but in Echoes the actual wording was "To all Grayson ships, the order is: Lady Harrington, and No Mercy!"
----------------
Listening to: Echo's Children - No Quarter
via FoxyTunes
Listening to: Emerald Rose - Four Jacks
via FoxyTunes . . . and suddenly realize that you had it all along?
Case in point: the "Listening to . . " in this post.
A bit of background: I am utterly addicted to David Weber's Honor Harrington novel series. The Honorverse has been described as "space opera as if CS Forrester had written it." It's got exploding spaceships, Byzantine politics, Tech That Makes Sense, Sound Tactics (too much sf/f military fiction does not, sadly), historical allusions, action, adventure, telepathic cats with prehensile tails and opposable thumbs and characters to both admire and revile.
Anyway, back in 2000 or so, Baen Books, publisher of the series, put the whole series onto CD-ROM and distributed a copy of the disc with each hardcover of War of Honor. Anyway, I got that book and the disc, and gleefully synced the entire series' pdb files to three PDAs since then.
Also on the disc was the three Echo's Children filksongs set in the Honorverse. And until yesterday, I did not know it. I've been all over the web looking for "No Quarter!" -- I saw the lyrics on some random filk site last year, and as soon as I realize it was a Honorverse song, I had to have it!
Now I do . . . and it was worth the wait! I just hope the upcoming Honorverse books (three next year, pray to Sharon)
Many SF series get worse for wear as time goes on; this one gets better. I also recommend the books that are not part of the main sequence of the series, like Crown of Slaves and (most especially) The Shadow of Saganami. Also, unlike many series, reading them in publication order is best. My favorite of the whole series? The Shadow of Saganami, without a doubt. Followed closely by Honor Among Enemies, In Enemy Hands, and Echoes of Honor (which is something of a trilogy in terms of the ongoing story).
The song concerns what could well have been a scene in Echoes . . . but in Echoes the actual wording was "To all Grayson ships, the order is: Lady Harrington, and No Mercy!"
----------------
Listening to: Echo's Children - No Quarter
via FoxyTunes
Tuesday, November 27, 2007
WiFi power bost?
This wireless router is said to have a 1/4 mile range. This reminds me of the science fiction RPG that featured fusion hand grenades on its equipment list -- they could destroy a city block, bit you could only throw it twenty meters or so . . .
----------------
Listening to: Weird Al Yankovic - Christmas At Ground Zero
via FoxyTunes
----------------
Listening to: Weird Al Yankovic - Christmas At Ground Zero
via FoxyTunes
Thursday, November 22, 2007
What Am I Thankful For?
A very partial list . . .
Physical: A great job, a roof over my head, enough cash to pay the bills, bandwidth and the means to use it.
Social: Mom, Dad, Ron, Sophia and Sam. Friends like Michelle, David, Kayla, Matt, Richard, Sammy, Duncan, Isabel, Tim, Kate, Sue, Rachael, Don, Rob, Kajir, Heather, Dave, Diane, Gene, Aries, Nika, Mystique, Harley, Rita, Bug, Shalyn and Hillary.
Other: An awesome health care team led by Dr. Nelson . . . the fact that the evil that is Shrub will be out of office in about a year . . . RT and e-Tran . . . PCJ and Panera . . .the music that helped save my life this year: Seanan McGuire, The Elders, Emerald Rose, Leslie Fish, James Blunt, Tempest, Escape Key, Flogging Molly, Roy Zimmerman, Loreena Mckinnett, Niel Young and Weird Al Yankovic.
Media: Serenity / Firefly, D&D, World of Warcraft.
Physical: A great job, a roof over my head, enough cash to pay the bills, bandwidth and the means to use it.
Social: Mom, Dad, Ron, Sophia and Sam. Friends like Michelle, David, Kayla, Matt, Richard, Sammy, Duncan, Isabel, Tim, Kate, Sue, Rachael, Don, Rob, Kajir, Heather, Dave, Diane, Gene, Aries, Nika, Mystique, Harley, Rita, Bug, Shalyn and Hillary.
Other: An awesome health care team led by Dr. Nelson . . . the fact that the evil that is Shrub will be out of office in about a year . . . RT and e-Tran . . . PCJ and Panera . . .the music that helped save my life this year: Seanan McGuire, The Elders, Emerald Rose, Leslie Fish, James Blunt, Tempest, Escape Key, Flogging Molly, Roy Zimmerman, Loreena Mckinnett, Niel Young and Weird Al Yankovic.
Media: Serenity / Firefly, D&D, World of Warcraft.
Friday, November 16, 2007
The very best thing about Leo . . .
Two words: TIME MACHINE.
Time Machine is the very best single reason for a Mac user to buy and install Leopard . . . and of you are a Windows user, the very best reason to go get a new Mac. Time Machine is a backup and restore utility. In a word, you can, at need, "go back in time" and restore your entire system or even a single file from any 1-hr increment in the last day, any day in the last month and any month thereafter. So, if in the middle of writing your master's thesis your MacBook Pro's internal HD packs it in, if you have TM and an external hard disk, you can restore the last backup (not to mention OS X, all your preferewnces, email, etc) of your thesis once the hard disk is replaced, and on you go.
You can restore a single file, your whole iTunes Library or thw whole fscking startup partition. No more need to use Target Disk Mode and another Mac. No more "log in as root, drag and drop your Home folder (c:\Documents and settings\yourname for you windows users) and HOPE you got it right." For some users, enabling the OS X "root" account is like handing a drunk with Tourette's Syndrome a greased grenade . . . only "sudo rm -R /* is capable of more damage in less time (think dropping to DOS, cd c:, then del *.*). No more Retrospect, .Mac backup 3.x (not a bad program, but it's about as intuitive as brain surgery when compared to TM) or needing to rely on a non-Apple solution.
Best of all, TM does this silently and automaticly..
Windows, by comparison, has "system restore" which is great for restoring Windows system files . . . but it does nto do jack about your master's thesis or your email, pics, music, videos or porn.
I had been looking forward to buying a new external hard drive to try this feature out once my finances allowed for it. Fortunately for me, I won a nice 250 gigabyte USB 2.0 drive today for quarterly sales performance. This is plenty of space to allow me to back up the 100 GB drive in my MacBook (currently about 40 gigs free). I'm going to put at least three partitions on the disk: one OS X for TM (I'm going to names it "HD Welles"), one also OS X (one just big enough to serve as a 10.5 startup disk, probably named "DaVinci" -- as in Leo-nardo) to install Leopard so I can boot off this drive at need and one formatted for FAT32 (Disk Utility does not speak Windows NTFS) so my good friends Michelle and David can back up their docs/music/pics/etc/omg/wtf/bbq.
Since the disk will be partitioned three ways, I think I'll call it "Gaul." Of course, people will look at me funny (not that they don't do that already . . .).
----------------
Listening to: Styx - Suite Madame Blue
via FoxyTunes
Time Machine is the very best single reason for a Mac user to buy and install Leopard . . . and of you are a Windows user, the very best reason to go get a new Mac. Time Machine is a backup and restore utility. In a word, you can, at need, "go back in time" and restore your entire system or even a single file from any 1-hr increment in the last day, any day in the last month and any month thereafter. So, if in the middle of writing your master's thesis your MacBook Pro's internal HD packs it in, if you have TM and an external hard disk, you can restore the last backup (not to mention OS X, all your preferewnces, email, etc) of your thesis once the hard disk is replaced, and on you go.
You can restore a single file, your whole iTunes Library or thw whole fscking startup partition. No more need to use Target Disk Mode and another Mac. No more "log in as root, drag and drop your Home folder (c:\Documents and settings\yourname for you windows users) and HOPE you got it right." For some users, enabling the OS X "root" account is like handing a drunk with Tourette's Syndrome a greased grenade . . . only "sudo rm -R /* is capable of more damage in less time (think dropping to DOS, cd c:, then del *.*). No more Retrospect, .Mac backup 3.x (not a bad program, but it's about as intuitive as brain surgery when compared to TM) or needing to rely on a non-Apple solution.
Best of all, TM does this silently and automaticly..
Windows, by comparison, has "system restore" which is great for restoring Windows system files . . . but it does nto do jack about your master's thesis or your email, pics, music, videos or porn.
I had been looking forward to buying a new external hard drive to try this feature out once my finances allowed for it. Fortunately for me, I won a nice 250 gigabyte USB 2.0 drive today for quarterly sales performance. This is plenty of space to allow me to back up the 100 GB drive in my MacBook (currently about 40 gigs free). I'm going to put at least three partitions on the disk: one OS X for TM (I'm going to names it "HD Welles"), one also OS X (one just big enough to serve as a 10.5 startup disk, probably named "DaVinci" -- as in Leo-nardo) to install Leopard so I can boot off this drive at need and one formatted for FAT32 (Disk Utility does not speak Windows NTFS) so my good friends Michelle and David can back up their docs/music/pics/etc/omg/wtf/bbq.
Since the disk will be partitioned three ways, I think I'll call it "Gaul." Of course, people will look at me funny (not that they don't do that already . . .).
----------------
Listening to: Styx - Suite Madame Blue
via FoxyTunes
Tuesday, November 13, 2007
Saturday, October 20, 2007
JK Rowling Outs Professor Dumbledore
Slash fanfic writers rejoice!
Conservative heads explode, too.
----------------
Now playing: 3 Pints Gone - Mary Ellen Carter
via FoxyTunes
Conservative heads explode, too.
----------------
Now playing: 3 Pints Gone - Mary Ellen Carter
via FoxyTunes
Monday, August 13, 2007
Random Bursts of Bandwidth
1. The most sinister day of the year: International Left Handers' Day
2. Speaking of sinister, Karl Rove resigns as Shrub's political director effective at the end of August. Fortunately, Sen. Leahy (Senate Judiciary Committee) isn't buying.
The movie line that came to mind is " . . . always two, there are."
3. Today's selection from the Voices In My Head Chorus (Earworm) comes from Stevie Nicks
4. Strangeness: The World's Cutest Two Year Old™ and Her Mom™ met me for coffee at Starbucks this morning. *$s is within bike riding distance for the aforementioned Mom and Kid and walking distance from my place. While *$s is the Walmart of coffee shops, you can always count on eclectic music you've never heard before playing while sipping your choice of coffees (black, heavy French roast, the Guinness of Coffees. I was NOT in a mocha / latte / steam shot mood this morning). My preferred coffee shop is a bit further away for both Mom and Kid, has great Fair Trade / Organic coffee, very good food and local artwork for sale but the music they play is overproduced 70s-80s soft rock oldies from an XM Radio robo-station.
Go figure.
2. Speaking of sinister, Karl Rove resigns as Shrub's political director effective at the end of August. Fortunately, Sen. Leahy (Senate Judiciary Committee) isn't buying.
The movie line that came to mind is " . . . always two, there are."
3. Today's selection from the Voices In My Head Chorus (Earworm) comes from Stevie Nicks
4. Strangeness: The World's Cutest Two Year Old™ and Her Mom™ met me for coffee at Starbucks this morning. *$s is within bike riding distance for the aforementioned Mom and Kid and walking distance from my place. While *$s is the Walmart of coffee shops, you can always count on eclectic music you've never heard before playing while sipping your choice of coffees (black, heavy French roast, the Guinness of Coffees. I was NOT in a mocha / latte / steam shot mood this morning). My preferred coffee shop is a bit further away for both Mom and Kid, has great Fair Trade / Organic coffee, very good food and local artwork for sale but the music they play is overproduced 70s-80s soft rock oldies from an XM Radio robo-station.
Go figure.
Friday, August 3, 2007
Random bits, bytes, nybbles, etc
1. " . . . that [his] name not be lost to the knowledge of men . . . " -- One of the very best folksingers who ever lived has not had his tunage for sale on the iTunes Store . . . until now. When I started buying music via iTunes, I looked in vain for Canadian folk muisc legend Stan Rogers. I was first introduced to Stan's music in, of all places, the SCA (yes, his songs are almost as "period" as an iPod). I first heard Barrett's Privateers at a Society bardic circle. I asked for the lyrics from the bard and learned the song by heart by the time I got home from the event (a 5 hour drive to An Tir for a war). I ran into more Stan Rogers goodness a few years later in the context of what was then the most compelling science fiction RPG background of the 1990s: Traveller: The New Era. Apparently, one of the developers was a Canadian, because one of the adventures for that game involved a starship called the Mary Ellen Carter. In many ways, that song pretty much sums up TNE. One trip through teh google later, I made the connection between these two experinces and Stan Rogers. Once other, more pressing, needs are met, I'll be downloading teh good stuff again. I currently have recordings of both songs -- the rather good 3 Pints Gone cover of Mary Ellen Carter and, in two of the greatest offenses ever recorded against the memory of a great artist, that fools-gold voiced tenor frank emerson's "covers" of MEC and Barrett's Privateers. If you're going to pay tribute to a legend AT LEAST GET THE LYRICS RIGHT AND DON'T DROP VERSES! Biggest waste of two bucks ever. And don't get me started on the waste of iTunes Library space that is his version of The Minstrel Boy! To paraphrase PeeJee from Something Positive, were I female, I could menstrate better music! I can only hope his name is lost to the knowledge of men!
2. ID10T: It's not just for computer novices anymore!
Customer calls in, issue is that his Mac is booting to a blank gray screen on its LCD display. This is not an especially common issue. There are notes from prior contacts where the previous "tech" documented that he did "everything" -- reset SMC, booted to CD, advised trying an external monitor and calling back with the result. He did everything, all right . . . everything but what was to me the blindingly obvious: resetting the fscking PRAM. I had Mister Customer reset the system's PRAM, and lo and behold, built-in video returned.
/rant=ON
Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls: I simply could not believe this. Resetting PRAM fixes a lot of stuff: USB / Firewire / ethernet / modem port issues, mis-recognition of the hard drive and most especially video issues. Usually PRAM resets are an overused troubleshooting step for issues where they are singularly ineffective, typically startup issues that arise after the OS starts loading. This is stuff any noob fresh out of training knows.
And this guy was NOT a newbie. Nor was he from an outsourced contact center. He sat two isles over from me. He made a customer troubleshoot ineffectually and even left him with the expectation that his system would need service, for an issue that should have been resolved with the very first troubleshooting step tried. He made someone call in a second time, wait on hold to music that may not quite be to taste, for an issue that should have been fixed in less than 5 minutes.
People like him are why I sometimes get angry enough to explode. Why? Because call center tech support reps like me are ranked for perks like desirable schedules, promotions, awards and such by two things: sales and call statistics . . . especially call duration. I got the distinct feeling from the customer that he felt rushed by the rep (something we are NOT supposed to do) because after we did the quick fix on the one system he had two other issues with other computers for me to look at! Fscking stats whores like him do this all the time. So you piss off a customer and leave me to clean up the mess. Not to mention hosing my call stats, which makes getting awards, promotions, and a decent schedule harder.
/rant=OFF
I feel a bit better now....
2. ID10T: It's not just for computer novices anymore!
Customer calls in, issue is that his Mac is booting to a blank gray screen on its LCD display. This is not an especially common issue. There are notes from prior contacts where the previous "tech" documented that he did "everything" -- reset SMC, booted to CD, advised trying an external monitor and calling back with the result. He did everything, all right . . . everything but what was to me the blindingly obvious: resetting the fscking PRAM. I had Mister Customer reset the system's PRAM, and lo and behold, built-in video returned.
/rant=ON
Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls: I simply could not believe this. Resetting PRAM fixes a lot of stuff: USB / Firewire / ethernet / modem port issues, mis-recognition of the hard drive and most especially video issues. Usually PRAM resets are an overused troubleshooting step for issues where they are singularly ineffective, typically startup issues that arise after the OS starts loading. This is stuff any noob fresh out of training knows.
And this guy was NOT a newbie. Nor was he from an outsourced contact center. He sat two isles over from me. He made a customer troubleshoot ineffectually and even left him with the expectation that his system would need service, for an issue that should have been resolved with the very first troubleshooting step tried. He made someone call in a second time, wait on hold to music that may not quite be to taste, for an issue that should have been fixed in less than 5 minutes.
People like him are why I sometimes get angry enough to explode. Why? Because call center tech support reps like me are ranked for perks like desirable schedules, promotions, awards and such by two things: sales and call statistics . . . especially call duration. I got the distinct feeling from the customer that he felt rushed by the rep (something we are NOT supposed to do) because after we did the quick fix on the one system he had two other issues with other computers for me to look at! Fscking stats whores like him do this all the time. So you piss off a customer and leave me to clean up the mess. Not to mention hosing my call stats, which makes getting awards, promotions, and a decent schedule harder.
/rant=OFF
I feel a bit better now....
Friday, April 27, 2007
SotR, Cleaning Spree edition
Back when I was sick a few months ago, my standards of housekeeping started to resemble those of a nest of diseased gerbils whose cage was severely neglected.
Now, I am not all about housework. Nobody this side of severe OCD is, or should be. However, I used to have a bad lazy streak coupled to terrible indifference to my general surroundings. Until things get really really really bad (as in "piles of trash and more bugs than Juan Rico has ever had to deal with . . ."), I don't do anything about them, ignore them, and hope the trash walks itself into bags (roaches the size of Yugos are an occasional help) and the dishes are magically cleaned.
That changed when I moved into my new place. I wanted to make a break from my history of "trash the place and hope my friends help dig me out." I want a place where I can entertain, game, make dinner for people I care about.
I want a cozy home, not a lair. Should I meet someone someday who I'd like to impress with my 1337 d0mestik skillz (as opposed to my gheek cred), I'd like that someone to say "That RichO guy isn't a sloven and has 1337 d0m3stik skillz!"
All was well for about a month after my move, then I got sick and stayed that way for the better part of the first four months of 2007. I saw the abyss and my slide toward household hell . . . and being ill, I did not feel like doing jack squat about it. I went from pretending to 1337 to total n00bness.
What happened? I started getting well, thanks to losing all that weight and some very good wound care by some of the very best nurses anywhere --- Teri, Guadalupe, Zoe, Ellen, and Florence. And just in time, my complex announced its semi annual walkthrough to inspect smoke alarms and the plumbing.
At that point, I got busy and started undoing several months of poor housekeeping -- and was informed on inspection day that I needed to do better or I'd be evicted. Round two was nearly four hours of frantic sweating work with some newly purchased tools and supples -- and the place passed. The apartment manager said I really turned the place around. A month ago, I could not have done it without yelling for help, and I'm tired of imposing on my friends like that.
I like the way the place looks now. I'm overdue for a small housewarming party, or a soiree where I make dinner for someone important to me . . .
Now, I am not all about housework. Nobody this side of severe OCD is, or should be. However, I used to have a bad lazy streak coupled to terrible indifference to my general surroundings. Until things get really really really bad (as in "piles of trash and more bugs than Juan Rico has ever had to deal with . . ."), I don't do anything about them, ignore them, and hope the trash walks itself into bags (roaches the size of Yugos are an occasional help) and the dishes are magically cleaned.
That changed when I moved into my new place. I wanted to make a break from my history of "trash the place and hope my friends help dig me out." I want a place where I can entertain, game, make dinner for people I care about.
I want a cozy home, not a lair. Should I meet someone someday who I'd like to impress with my 1337 d0mestik skillz (as opposed to my gheek cred), I'd like that someone to say "That RichO guy isn't a sloven and has 1337 d0m3stik skillz!"
All was well for about a month after my move, then I got sick and stayed that way for the better part of the first four months of 2007. I saw the abyss and my slide toward household hell . . . and being ill, I did not feel like doing jack squat about it. I went from pretending to 1337 to total n00bness.
What happened? I started getting well, thanks to losing all that weight and some very good wound care by some of the very best nurses anywhere --- Teri, Guadalupe, Zoe, Ellen, and Florence. And just in time, my complex announced its semi annual walkthrough to inspect smoke alarms and the plumbing.
At that point, I got busy and started undoing several months of poor housekeeping -- and was informed on inspection day that I needed to do better or I'd be evicted. Round two was nearly four hours of frantic sweating work with some newly purchased tools and supples -- and the place passed. The apartment manager said I really turned the place around. A month ago, I could not have done it without yelling for help, and I'm tired of imposing on my friends like that.
I like the way the place looks now. I'm overdue for a small housewarming party, or a soiree where I make dinner for someone important to me . . .
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